Page 18 of Swim To Me

“The cold water, my nerves, the-the knowledge we could drown at any moment.”

Tipping my head back, I let out a sharp laugh. “I’m not going to drown, and neither are you.”

“You promise?”

I nod. “I promise, Delilah.”

We reach the first set of flags and since Delilah isn’t saying anything, I can only assume she’s still able to feel the safety of the tiled floor beneath the soles of her feet.Keeping my hand on her forearm, I turn us both around to wade through the pool back towards the shallow end.

“But have you ever?”

I furrow my brow in confusion. “Have I ever what?”

“Drowned.”

Another bubble of laughter threatens to escape, but I swallow it down when I see the serious expression painted across Delilah’s pretty features.

“Once, when I was younger. My brothers and I were rough housing a little too harshly and—”

“How many brothers do you have?”

“I’m one of four.”

“Four?!”

“Yep,” I say proudly. “I’ve got two older brothers, myself, and then a younger brother. We always joke that my parents were trying for a girl and ended up with us rowdy lot instead.”

“Four boys… I couldn’t imagine it.” Delilah laughs breathily. This little noise I find myself suddenly wanting to coax out of her again and again just to hear it… Weird. “I’ve only got one sister, Aurelia, and my god, I could kill her sometimes.”

“Glad it’s not just me and my siblings.” I chuckle. “Family get-togethers are definitely an experience. Are you the youngest or the oldest sibling?”

What can only be described as a sly smirk crosses Delilah’s face. “The oldest.”

We turn and wade towards the flags again, one lap down.

“Did you always want to be a swim teacher?”she asks, seemingly out of the blue.

“Uhh, no.” I glance over at Delilah, releasing the hold on her forearm to just hover beside her and swallow down the lump of bile quickly rising in the base of my throat. “I kind of fell into it, but I’ve always loved the pool and swimming, so it made sense to do something along these lines.”

Delilah nods slowly, eyes fixed somewhere on the wall ahead.

“What about you?”

“Me?” She jolts. “I’m a book editor for a publishing house. I’ve been there since I left university… It was always what I wanted to do, so I’m extremely lucky in that aspect.”

“A book editor? That’s cool! You’re a big reader, then?”

“Yeah.” She smiles. “My sister jokes that my e-reader is glued to my hand. Are you?”

I screw up my face. “Not massively… I read stuff at school and this time travel novel my mum’s obsessed with about Scotland and the Jacobite rebellion but I didn’t have a lot of time growing up for anything but swimming. Guess, I’ve taken that into my adult life too.”

Delilah hums in the back of her throat to show she’s heard me, but she doesn’t say anything else, allowing silence to fall between the two of us.

A rubber duck quacks, followed by a childish giggle.

I inhale the familiar scent of chlorine, tasting it at the back of my throat, drawing my gaze back to a still silent Delilah.

“You doing okay?”

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